"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things."
~T.S. Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent, 1919

HAPPY NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!!!

Oh my goodness gracious!!! Where in the world has the time gone? Not only have I been a terrible blog mother but I didn't even properly usher in only the best month for any poetry blogger- National Poetry Month! But now that we're all on the same page, please tell everyone you know to read a poem and celebrate!
Now I feel terrible about being absent so long so the best peace offering I can think to give you is a poem.  To get things kicked off right, let's start with one of my favorites. Enjoy!

"Get Out of Bed! " by Diane Z. Shore

Silly children's poetry month continues...

Get Out of Bed!
by Diane Z. Shore

"Get out of bed, you silly fool!
Get up right now, it’s time for school.
If you don’t dress without a fuss,
I’ll throw you naked on the bus!"

"Oh, Mom, don’t make me go today.
I’m feeling worse than yesterday.
You don’t know what I’m going through.
I’ve got a strange, rare case of flu.

"My body aches, my throat is sore.
I’m sure I’m knocking on death’s door.
You can’t send me to school—achoo!—
’Cause everyone could get it, too.

"Besides, the kids despise me there.
They always tease and always stare.
And all the teachers know my name.
When something’s wrong, it’s me they blame."

"You faked a headache yesterday.
Don’t pull that stuff on me today.
Stop acting like a silly fool—
The principal cannot skip school!"

Found at: http://www.gigglepoetry.com/poem.aspx?PoemID=111&CategoryID=44

"Don't Bring Camels in the Classroom" by Kenn Nesbitt

Let's get 2012 off to a good start, shall we? Personally, it's only 3 days in and already one of the most stressful years of my life. Since Make Time for Poetry is the place where I take a break from job searching, wedding planning, and cleaning my ever disastrous apartment, I've decided in an effort to keep a smile on my face (and hopefully yours too) the month of January will be dedicated to silly children's poetry. So if sometime in the next 28 days you find yourself screaming or crying or just wishing you had enough energy or time for either, take a break, brew some tea, let yourself relax and enjoy a silly poem.I promise, you'll thank me later...

Don't Bring Camels in the Classroom
by Kenn Nesbitt

Don't bring camels in the classroom.
Don't bring scorpions to school.
Don't bring rhinos, rats, or reindeer.
Don't bring mice or moose or mule.

Pull your penguin off the playground.
Put your python in a tree.
Place your platypus wherever
you think platypi should be.

Lose your leopard and your lemur.
Leave your llama and your leech.
Take your tiger, toad, and toucan
anywhere but where they teach.

Send your wombat and your weasel
with your wasp and wolverine.
Hide your hedgehog and hyena
where you're sure they won't be seen.

Please get rid of your gorilla.
Please kick out your kangaroo.
No, the teacher didn't mean it
when she called the class a "zoo."

Found at: http://www.poetryteachers.com/schoolpoems/dontbringcamels.html

"It would be neat if with the New Year" by Jimmy Santiago Baca

This will likely be my last poem post of 2011 so enjoy!

It would be neat if with the New Year
by Jimmy Santiago Baca

          for Miguel

It would be neat if with the New Year

I could leave my loneliness behind with the old year.

My leathery loneliness an old pair of work boots

my dog vigorously head-shakes back and forth in its jaws,

chews on for hours every day in my front yard—

rain, sun, snow, or wind

in bare feet, pondering my poem,

I’d look out my window and see that dirty pair of boots in the yard.

But my happiness depends so much on wearing those boots.

At the end of my day

while I’m in a chair listening to a Mexican corrido

I stare at my boots appreciating:

all the wrong roads we’ve taken, all the drug and whiskey houses

we’ve visited, and as the Mexican singer wails his pain,

I smile at my boots, understanding every note in his voice,

and strangers, when they see my boots rocking back and forth on my

                                                                                                    feet

keeping beat to the song, see how

my boots are scuffed, tooth-marked, worn-soled.

I keep wearing them because they fit so good

and I need them, especially when I love so hard,

where I go up those boulder strewn trails,

where flowers crack rocks in their defiant love for the light.

Found at:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179715

"Burning the Old Year" by Naomi Shihab Nye

With the 2012 just a few days away, I thought this would be a good time to share this beautifully written, thought provoking poem. Hopefully it inspires some past year reflection. Enjoy!

Burning the Old Year
By Naomi Shihab Nye

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,
lists of vegetables, partial poems.
Orange swirling flame of days,
so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.
I begin again with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,
only the things I didn’t do
crackle after the blazing dies.

Found at: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178317

"A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement Clark Moore (authorship debated)